Venice Carnival Photography Course 2018

Photography course in Venice

Had an absolutely brilliant time running my 2018 Venice Carnival photography course. I had six photographers with me and they were really good company. Lots of photography and lots of laughs during the whole trip.

Venice on the whole seems to be quite reliable weather-wise during carnival time and this year was no exception. We had a couple of hours of rain during the whole course which isn’t too bad I think. The Rialto fish and fruit market was the venue for the only couple of rainy hours we had because it’s covered over, so great for any wet weather photography.

For the rest of the course we had dry mild weather. Perfect for people pictures.

As always, Venice didn’t disappoint. There were some fantastic carnival costumes on view and my photography students didn’t waste any time getting to grips with portrait photography and photographing the huge variety of people in the elaborate costumes on offer.

Apart from carnival, Venice is one of those places that you can’t fail to get great pictures from. We shot canal scenes, fabulous old buildings including the kaleidescope of colours that you find on Burano which is one of the smaller islands in the Venice lagoon. There are a number of night shoot options including the Rialto Bridge and the Venice Arsenal where everyone got some excellent shots. We also had a go at intentional camera movement technique which involves moving the camera around during a long exposure to create a Monet style impressionist’s picture such as the image below on the right.

One of the things I like most about Venice (and Italy in general) is how friendly the locals are. One gentleman on the island of Burano was happy to pose for us, a real character; he was very proud of having reached the great age of 92 and still fit enough to take a morning and afternoon walk around the island.

Venice is also a great place to practise all sorts of photography techniques such as intentional camera movement, selective depth of field and of course, street photography.

So good weather, fantastic subjects and great company, Venice 2018 was a great success. Already looking forward to Venice 2019.